


How the Las Vegas Aces Saved My Life

by betsytheoven



Series: The Aces in the Tribune [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 17:56:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7474143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betsytheoven/pseuds/betsytheoven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kent Parson/ Contributor</p><p>I was drafted to the Las Vegas Aces in 2009. I've learned a lot since then, but the most important thing I've learned is how important this team is to me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How the Las Vegas Aces Saved My Life

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT: There is a very brief mention of suicidal thoughts!
> 
>  
> 
> Many thanks to everyone who put up with me screaming about Kent responding to his team with a Players' Tribune article

** How the Las Vegas Aces Saved My Life **

July 12, 2016

 

**Kent Parson**

Contributor

  
  


** T** here was a time where I felt alone in the world. That sounds quite dramatic, but then again, I was a dramatic teenager. I lost my best friend and  moved hundreds of miles away from my family and everything I knew in order to play hockey on a team that was so new, most people still asked, “There’s a hockey team in Las Vegas?”

 

I can’t say I was optimistic when I went to the Aces. In the days leading up to the draft, I really thought I was going to the Toronto Maple Leafs. I thought I was going to be stationed a bit closer to home and be around people I had been training and playing with for the past few years. 

 

Then I was drafted and well, I wasn’t left with very much choice. 

 

Nevada is hot. And dry. And once you leave Las Vegas, there’s not much out there. As an 18-year old kid from upstate New York, that was terrifying. Even more terrifying was the idea that I was supposed to “save” this team from themselves in my rookie season. That was alarming and intimidating and so terribly wrong. 

 

If there’s one thing the media gets wrong about me, it’s this: I did not save the Las Vegas Aces. 

 

They saved me. 

 

Hockey can put you in a dark place. It’s all-consuming and if you pay too much attention to media and analysts, you can drive yourself towards stupid things. If the guys on the team hadn’t made me feel so welcome, so completely at home from the second I stepped off the plane in Vegas, I would have followed through on some pretty stupid things. 

 

I can’t say it enough times, but I need people to understand this. The Las Vegas Aces are the best thing to ever happen to me. The guys can be total idiots but if you’ve read my teammate, Jason Thall’s Players’ Tribune article by now, you’ll know that they’re also some of the best guys around. Without me even noticing, those guys became family, and family is very important to me. 

 

There have been many nights where I wished my family lived closer to Vegas. I grew up in a very tightly-knit family, so my mom and sisters are a very important part of my life. But the guys always have my back, and they have proven time and time again that they are the best family I could have ever found. Even when my family isn’t in Vegas, I’ve got a family to go to. 

 

Any time I start to feel even the slightest bit homesick, one of the old veterans shows up at my place with cat treats and pizza. The rookies take turns dropping by my apartment to water my plants, after [Jason] Thall told everyone I killed a cactus one time in my rookie year. (It was because of a really long road trip with the team out East, not because I drowned it, as Thall claims.) At first their constant presence was a little weird, but they all just care too much so I got used to it. Everyone new to the team gets used to our weird dynamic eventually.  Once you get traded or drafted to the Aces, you’re family. 

 

By “family” I mean practically living at each others’ houses, bringing up embarrassing stories in front of significant others, pulling each other through the dark times, and catsitting. We do it all. 

 

The guys on the team make my job the best job in the world. 

 

I love hockey. I always have and I always will, there’s no doubt there. I will play until I’m falling apart on the ice and then I will start coaching. Hockey is my life, and I would have loved any team that drafted me back in 2009 because I would be out on the ice, playing my heart out. But a life without family isn’t much fun. My game isn’t as good without these guys (Sorry about that Silver medal, America.) and they make me a better person. 

 

They will swear on their pre-game rituals that  _ I _ am the good influence, but I cannot stress how untrue that is. As Captain, I am constantly challenged to improve myself, but I have grown the most when the cameras are off and the skates are all hung in their stalls because of my team.

 

They’re my family. 

 

There are team barbeques, some of the guys go on summer vacations together, we have joint holiday parties, and we send out a team holiday card every year. We go out to dinner together, even if we didn’t have a practice or a game that day. I text the guys when my sisters do something amazing, and they text to check in on my cat, who is usually doing something amazing. We all found each other because of the Aces. Even when some of the guys have to leave the team, they don’t leave the family. 

 

We thrive off of each other, and our game is reflective of the strong relationships between everyone on the team. 

 

It’s not just the guys on the ice every night, though. Every hockey team, especially the Aces, is lost without all of the people  _ off _ the ice. Obviously, our coaches and trainers keep us upright, but every single person who works for the team has supported me from Day One. They often get overlooked, but I can honestly tell you that the Aces’ Office team is just as much a family to me as the guys who strap on skates every day. 

 

I wish I could spend time telling everyone about the great work done by each and every individual. Sarah, Asina, John, Niroja, Gabo, Jason, Anthea, The Other Jason, Sam, Lani, the list goes on. It’s rare if there isn’t a member of the Office Team with the players at any one time, but they never get enough credit for how much they contribute to the team dynamic. 

 

Asina, the intern in charge of the Aces’ Snapchat account, spends so much time in the locker room and following us around Vegas that she honestly deserves a medal. When she graduated college last winter, we all showed up to her graduation. There was a whole section of us idiots yelling our heads off in the bleachers when they announced her name. I’m pretty sure she regretted her internship then, but it made for good snapchats, so she put up with us.

 

John, poor guy, is our PR person. They try really hard to keep us from doing stupid things, but inevitably one of us will do something idiotic (like when Jennall tripped in a restaurant and knocked over a table, taking the lit candle with him) and they have to work at all hours to make sure the public doesn’t stop supporting our team. They work weird hours without complaint, even though they have two adorable children and a husband at home. Even when they have to clean up our messes, they never cease to be kind and understanding. 

 

I guess I probably shouldn’t go through every member of the Office Team, otherwise this article would be much longer than anyone cares for. Just know that every time I show up to the rink, there are kind smiles waiting for me and all our players.  

 

While the Aces never treated me as anything less than family, I did not truly understand that I was drafted into the best organization in the league until after the All-Star break of my rookie year. We had just played our first game back and when I was walking around the rink, every member of the Office Team offered me kind words as I headed out to my car. But the striking thing was that not a single person complimented me on the game I had just played, and scored a hat-trick in. 

 

They told me that it was good to see me again after the break, they were excited to hear about the new cat I had adopted, they asked if I wanted to come over for dinner with their family, they asked how I was doing. 

 

I wasn’t just a hockey player, I was a person to them. They cared about my life, not just my stats.

 

No organization is complete if the Office Team and the On-Ice Team don’t mix. At the Aces, it’s always a little surprising how supportive and kind both teams are. The winning combination of the two teams is the reason I am the player I am today.

 

I’m no Crosby or Gretzky (hell, give the McDavid kid a few years and I’ll probably be no match for him either), but I’m a good hockey player. All of my success so far is owed to every single outstanding person in the Las Vegas organization, except maybe Thall--he’s an idiot. 

 

All this is to say that every captain could spend years telling you why they love their team, and why their team is the best in the league. I’m no different. The Las Vegas Aces are the best team in the league. While yes, we have a solid blue line and some pretty solid depth in our lines, even after having to shuffle some of our players after the Cup win, we are the best team in the league. Nothing anyone says can convince me otherwise.

 

If I get traded, or retire, or however I am forced to leave the Aces, I will always be an Aces fan. This team has saved me from dark times, and helped me find myself. I am learning how to be a better leader, but more importantly I’m learning how to be a better friend. 

 

When I was 17 and drafted into the NHL, I thought a good hockey player kept his head down, kept out of the media, and kept his emotions to himself, so I spent most of my time alone in my apartment. 

 

Now, at 26 I know better. I spend most days surrounded by teammates and their families and friends, laughing and smiling more than I ever thought possible. I’m not as worried talking to the media, because I know the Office Team will support me. I am happier than I have ever been in my life because of this team, this family. Being drafted by the Las Vegas Aces was and still is the best thing to happen in my life. 

  
Kent Parson

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come find me over on [tumblr](http://betsytheoven.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/betsytheoven)!


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